Ocasio-Cortez opened her remarks by telling the witnesses and audience that she had made a student loan payment while attending the hearing.

"I literally made a student loan payment while I was sitting here at this chair, and I looked at my balance, and it was $20,237.16," she said. "I just made a payment that took me down to $19,000 so I feel really accomplished right now."

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are already vowing to do something about student loan debt. This is why the 1.6 trillion dollar issue could play a big part in the 2020 election.
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She called for action on the nation's student debt.

“I’m hearing people on this committee say it’s not our job," Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to congressional Republicans' testimony during the hearing. "This is our job.”

The committee had been discussing ways to address the nation's estimated $1.5 trillion in student debt and featured testimony from consumer advocates and experts.

Comedian Hasan Minhaj, whose Netflix show "Patriot Act" had run an episode about student debt, talked about how student debt had become a "paywall to the middle class."

Ocasio-Cortez is one of many members of Congress with student debt burdens. Roll Call reported in March 2019 that 68 members of Congress had their own student loans or loans for a dependent, with an average debt burden of $37,000. Eight members had more than $100,000 in student debt.

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From left, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Ayanna Pressley respond to remarks by President Donald Trump after his call for the four Democratic congresswomen to go back to their "broken" countries, during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, July 15, 2019. All are American citizens and three of the four were born in the U.S. J. Scott Applewhite, AP

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, left, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib laugh as they wait for other freshman Congressmen to deliver a letter calling to an end to the government shutdown on January 16, 2019. Andrew Harnik, AP

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar attend a press conference calling on Congress to cut funding for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and to defund border detention facilities, outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC on February 7, 2019. Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images

Rashida Tlaib, center, wipes her eyes while testifying before the House Oversight Committee hearing on family separation and detention centers on July 12, 2019 on Capitol Hill in Washington. Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

Rashida Tlaib, left, and Ayanna Pressley whisper during a hearing on the Trump Administration's policy on separating migrant children from their families on July 12, 2019 in Washington. Yehyun Kim, USAT

Ayanna Pressley hugs Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez following a press conference before a House Oversight and Reform subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill on July 10, 2019 in Washington, DC. Zach Gibson, Getty Images